Art moved from King’s Lynn to Hunstanton

wicked planters, lincoln square hunstanton ANL-140721-165925001

Lynn’s loss has been Hunstanton’s gain as far as a new piece of artwork installed in the town at Lincoln Square is concerned.

The “Wicked Planters” designed by French artist Luc Voisin as part of the Art, Cities and Landscapes project, was originally intended to be put in the Tuesday Market Place in Lynn.

Mr Voisin said that the jury wanted the water features to “add a bit of life” to the newly-refurbished area.

He added: “Because the Tuesday Market Place was where witches were boiled, we decided to design wooden planters with several perpendicular elements under the shape of a pyre.

“Warmly coloured plastic sheets symbolised the fire and incandescent embers, water blades falling from the highest to the tallest elements give the feeling that the planters are boiling.”

But he said a first design was rejected as as “too contemporary”, leading to changes which were constructed in the West Norfolk Council workshop.

“Everything went well until the day we brought the empty elements on site to level them up ... the planters were considered way too high and too big.”

Mr Voisin said they were told the project was not welcome on the Tuesday Market Place any more and were instead offered a place on a car park.

But he said: “The project had been designed for a city centre, with people wandering around, not between two cars because they don’t know where to install it.”

However, he said he was happy with the Lincoln Square site.

“It is beautiful, facing the sea and except the fact that we didn’t think of our project in such a location, it’s a great place.

“Because of technical reasons we’ve been told that there will be no water features for the opening and we doubt they will be installed.”

He praised the West Norfolk Council for their work but admitted to being disappointed they could not complete the planters as they wanted to.

Hunstanton resident Maria Rix told the Lynn News that the installation had made Lincoln Square into a “crate merchants” backyard!

She said: “I believe that it has been imposed up on us by our “generous” borough council.

“It beggars belief to see where it has been positioned, right in the middle of the grassed square where people can sit down for a picnic or sit on the benches with magnificent sea views, as was the case before the crates were installed.”

Malcolm Hirons, of Lincoln Square, said: “We were consulted twice before the road was resurfaced, but the first we knew about this development was when my wife saw a man marking out the site and asked him what he was doing.

“This is a conservation area. If we wanted to make alterations to the appearance of our property an application for planning permission would be required, so how can it be right for this type of structure to be erected on this wonderful area of public open space?”

A spokeswoman for West Norfolk Council said the planters had been installed as part of the Hunstanton In Bloom effort.

She said: “The proposal to install the scheme in Lincoln Square was discussed at the Hunstanton In Bloom Committee and agreed by them.

“As with all arts related projects, they do attract mixed reviews. However, the Amiens schemes are temporary in nature and will be reviewed on an ongoing basis.

“This particular scheme was originally created for the Tuesday Market Place granite area. However, it soon became clear that it was not suitable for that area and it needed a much larger area of open space, with less pedestrian activity.

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